The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 73 To My Brother
Su Qingmei entered the room with a flushed face, grabbed the pulse pillow, and ran away as fast as she could.

This time, Zheng Zhilong confirmed that the little girl had gone down the rope ladder before he spoke: "Those women in the boat city are all prostitutes on the shore. Since these people have been to the boat city, they must be familiar with it. Find a few to ask, maybe we can find clues about Brother Zhou and the others."

Lei Sanxiang slapped his thigh: "That makes sense!"

Then he frowned and said, "But there are so many brothels on the shore, where am I supposed to find one?"

Zheng Zhilong was at a loss for words. In his view, the only solution was to send people to search each room one by one; there was no shortcut.

Lin Qian continued, "Go to Chaoyang, Huilai, and Chenghai counties to search, starting with the most expensive ones."

These three places are three coastal counties of Chaozhou Prefecture, among which Chaoyang is the closest to the ship city.

Most brothels in county towns don't have strong backers, so they're relatively safe.

Meanwhile, pirates make money quickly and never hesitate to spend it, always choosing the most expensive girls.

Lin Qian added, "Although it is a period of national mourning, during which drinking, eating meat, and gatherings are prohibited, it would be strange if the brothels in Jiangnan could withstand the loneliness. We should focus on investigating those places that actually close at night."

Zheng Zhilong nodded repeatedly: "Listening to Brother Lin speak is truly like seeing the sun after the clouds have parted."

Lin Qian: "I'll trouble you, eldest brother, third brother, and Yi Guan, to handle this matter. Each of you should take some silver and manpower and go to the three county towns. To avoid Li Kuiqi's eyes and ears, set off at night!"

Lei Sanxiang laughed and said, "Don't worry, Captain, visiting brothels is something I, Old Lei, am an expert at!"

Chen Jiao retorted angrily, "The captain didn't tell you to go drinking and carousing!"

Lei Sanxiang, after being scolded, chuckled and said, "I'm just venting. I know what to do when it comes to important matters."

Lin Qian stood up and solemnly said to the three men, "Li Kuiqi is a cautious and cunning man. The three of you must not reveal any flaws in your actions. Also, you must find a way to keep the prostitutes and madams in the brothel from making a fuss."

The three men rose, cupped their hands in greeting, and said solemnly, "Rest assured, Captain!"

Lin Qian walked to the window and saw that the sky outside was gloomy, as if a rainstorm was about to break.

"Go and come back as soon as possible, we don't have much time left," Lin Qian said in a deep voice.

……

That afternoon.

The carpenter reported that the refit of the Santa Ana was complete and asked Lin Qian to inspect it.

Those in high positions must have the ability to handle tasks in multiple ways.

He has been busy rescuing Zhou Xiucai lately, but he hasn't forgotten about the ship's modification, and has urged the project to proceed on several occasions.

It's finally finished now.

Lin Qian got up and followed the craftsmen down to the cannon deck, carefully inspecting each cannon door.

The gun ports were almost identical to those on the original large sailing ship, as if the ship had been designed this way from the beginning.

Lin Qian specially had a cannon moved to the new gun port and then test-fired one shot.

The gun emplacement opened and closed smoothly, was of a reasonable size, and was surrounded by a sturdy structure.

Despite being repeatedly urged to meet deadlines, the carpenters did not compromise on quality at all.

This alone is enough to make countless companies in later generations ashamed.

Now that the gun emplacements are in place, all that's missing is the cannon itself. The thought of the cannons makes Lin Qian feel a tightness in her chest.

Afterwards, Lin Qian went to inspect the triangular sail at the bow, only to find that the bow girder on the bow mast was gone.

The carpenters lengthened the original foremast and added several ropes between it and the foremast and mainmast.

Among them, three slanted masts lay flat on the deck, with ropes tied to both ends, and three triangular sails of different sizes were rolled up on them.

This is the state of the bow triangular sail when it is folded up. If it is necessary to raise the sail, the operator needs to pull the lifting rope to raise the three barges and at the same time pull the sail rope to unfold the triangular sail.

Compared to a soft square sail, the raising and lowering of a triangular sail is more complicated.

However, compared to this amount of work, the improvements that the triangular sail brought to the Santa Ana were enormous.

First, the triangular sail can utilize Bernoulli's principle to improve the efficiency of wind utilization, making it much faster than the original bow square sail.

Secondly, the triangular sail is highly maneuverable, allowing for quick sail changes and adaptation to new wind angles, which is especially important in the complex and ever-changing wind directions of the Fujian and Guangdong waters. Finally, the triangular sail also possesses strong upwind sailing capabilities. The minimum angle between a soft square sail and the wind is approximately 60 degrees; exceeding this value necessitates zigzagging.

With the addition of these three triangular sails, the headwind angle can be further reduced to 50 degrees or even 45 degrees.

Don't underestimate this difference of more than ten degrees.

About half a year ago, in the waters south of Manila, if the San Philip had had three triangular sails, it wouldn't have been unable to catch up with the slow-moving Fujian ship.

Lin Qian and her gang of pirates had long been riddled with bullets by cannon fire, their bodies sinking into the sea to feed the sharks.

"Weigh anchor and let's try sailing!" Lin Qian shouted.

With Chen Jiao not on board, Bai Langzai took on the role of first mate and loudly relayed orders to the crew: "The helmsman has given the order: prepare to weigh anchor! Everyone, get the winches in place!"

Lin Qian glanced at Bai Langzai with satisfaction. This guy was quiet every day, but he learned quite quickly. Now, he was already acting like a first mate, issuing orders.

Lin Qian instructed, "Tell the sailors not to use the soft sails, but only these three triangular sails for navigation."

“Yes,” Bai Langzai replied.

After a long while, the anchor was raised, and the crew took their positions at Bai Langzai's command. However, they were all dumbfounded by the complicated locking mechanism of the triangular sail and did not know how to operate it.

These sailors were either Chinese laborers on Spanish ships or boatmen trained by José; none of them had ever touched a triangular sail.

Fortunately, Lin Qian was an expert in triangular sailing in his previous life, and he designed all the rigging for these three triangular sails. At this moment, he began to teach the participants how to operate them.

Half an hour later, Lin Qian finished explaining how to use the three sails and assigned each sailor a post: some were to pull the sail ropes, some were to control the raising and lowering ropes, some were to untie the sail straps, and others were to be in reserve.

After the sailors took their positions, Lin Qian gave the order, and everyone worked together to raise the sail.

As the three slanted masts slowly rose, the dancers felt both excited and exhilarated.

Lin Qian remained in the center, coordinating the movements of each hand.

Just as the triangular sail rose to halfway up the sky.

A crew member behind Lin Qian said, "Captain, someone found this on the beach of the island."

Lin Qian turned around and saw a crew member behind her holding a wooden box. Inside the box was a rotten, severed finger, with a letter pressed under the finger.

Immediately, everyone on the deck looked grim.

"Close the box and come ashore with me," Lin Qian said calmly.

About half an hour later, in Qingmeifang.

Su Kang carefully picked out the severed finger with chopsticks and placed it on a plate.

He then slowly took the letter out and placed it on the table.

The crew carried the box away.

Su Kang said, "No rush, let's leave it for now."

He took out a small knife from his medical kit, carefully scraped some paper scraps off the envelope, soaked them in a teacup, stirred them for a moment, and then tested them for poison with a silver needle.

The silver needle did not change color.

Su Kang brought his nose closer and smelled the water in the teacup, then smelled the envelope to confirm it was non-toxic.

Then Su Kang used different methods to examine the severed finger and the box.

Afterwards, Su Kang opened the envelope, slowly pulled out the letter, and after examining it, said, "It's all free of poison."

Su Qingmei, who usually had a tense expression, relaxed after hearing these words.

Lin Qian asked her subordinate to bring chopsticks, and imitating Su Kang, she placed the envelope in front of her.

The envelope was covered with neat, small characters:

“To my younger brother Lin Qian – Zhou Youcai”

(End of this chapter)